I had this issue but for me it was because I used a cheap HDMI cable.
My Vizio 4k wasn't syncing with my GTX 660 and it made the screen jump around and every time it did the Icons would left justify on the screen.
As soon as I replaced the cable with something rated for 10gb+, 7.1 ect.. everything is 100% stable.
Now I use my system at 100% 4k@60hz and there is no lag, no nothing. Just like using it at 1080p or below.
All games, all emulators and all software work perfectly as I never upgraded.

Hello Dalmo, As you will be aware, the registry structure has remained essentially unchanged through generations of Windows. This is both a strength (legacy) and a weakness (vulnerability) - probably leading to the sort of problem we are discussing here. So here is the logic and why I posted that.

Thus fixes people have found for previous generations of Windows may sometimes be applicable to newer ones. We all know this problem (desktop icons suddenly re-arranging + explorer folder view settings not staying as set) is an old one. For example. AskVG posted a solution previously found which was also claimed to apply to Windows 10. A further exmple would be that I had a problem in Win 10 resolved by a tutorial Brink posted for Win 8.

Therefore it is worth considering what people have found before in appropriate situations and with due caution.

However, it is becoming clear that the 3 or so registry 'fixes' for this problem people have found before only solve the problem for some people, and perhaps there is no permanent universal solution- so many people have tried.

Now, moving on.

A simple test I've done shows that the control of both the desktop icon auto-arrangement and explorer's folder view settings are held in a common registry location. That observation would seem to establish why problems in both are observed together.

This one also changes when the auto-arrange setting is changed.
HKU\S-1-5-21-1874168061-3408090847-1495916866-1001\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\UserAssist\{CEBFF5CD-ACE2-4F4F-9178-9926F41749EA}\Count\HRZR_PGYFRFFVBA:

(The string S-1-5-21-1874168061-3408090847-1495916866-1001 may well be different on a different PC).

Now, if someone who is experiencing both problems would export these keys and upload them, I may be able to see if merging these recreates the problem (which I don't have). Because it's been such a persistent problem, I'm curious..

Obviously I would take due precautions - disk image, registry backup...

Now this has a very obvious limitation. Even if such an experiment meant that I then experienced the symptoms, the question of cause and effect remains.

Some people attribute this to the installation of certain programs from itunes to ESET AV, and even MS updates.
Maybe there are multiple causes. This seems unknown despite the great many people who have experienced this.

Desktop icons keep rearranging

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